


Just Between Us

by MegannRosemary



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Swan Queen Week, roomate au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-26
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-03-09 05:31:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3238112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegannRosemary/pseuds/MegannRosemary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan and her son Henry move to small town Storybrooke, ready to start a new life, ready to find a place where they belong. They get the surprise of their life when they discover their accidental roommate Regina Mills is a ghost. Based on the movie Just like Heaven. Written for Swan Queen Week: Roomate AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Once Upon a Time or Just Like Heaven (From which I borrowed the premise of this story)

 

One

_Damn, it was bigger than she’d remembered._ Emma pulled her beat up yellow Bug into the driveway of 108 Mifflin Street.  She climbed from the car, stretching her legs after the long drive and gazed up at the large white mansion.

 When she’d been hired as the Sherriff of the small town of Storybrooke, there hadn’t been many options when it came to housing.  There were a few apartments by the cannery that smelled like fish and then there was this place, fully furnished and dirt cheap. If she and Henry were going to leave the big city for small town life, then she was going to go all out, to live the American Dream. She was bound and determined to give her ten year old son, Henry, a real home with a yard and his own room, a place where he could truly belong.  

And herself, dare she dream that this would be the place where _she_ belonged.

As it was, everything that was important to her she’d packed in the back of her Bug. A few boxes of linens and pots and pans, a battered suitcase full of clothes, and her special box.  It wasn’t much, but to Emma it was everything, after a childhood of nothing.

Neal, her ex, was bringing Henry out the next week, as well as all his stuff. He’d bargained for a weeklong visit with their son since he wouldn’t see the kid until Christmas. She owed it to him.

She should have been thankful that they hadn’t had to rent a truck to move everything together. But it would have been a small price to pay, for all too soon she was alone in the big house, with only her thoughts for company. It took her less than an hour to unpack the stuff she’d brought. Enough time to make the bed and shove her clothes into the beautiful mahogany drawers in the large walk in closet. They looked wrong, her plain t-shirts and worn jeans, belonging to another world. It taunted her, told her to go back to the big city, to their dingy apartment, to forget about the small town dream. 

She laughed bitterly to herself; she never belonged anywhere, not truly. She’d hoped this new town would be different, a new start for them, a true home. One hour was all it took and she wanted to run far, far away, away from this big house, her dreams, the possibility of a future.

She snagged a beer from the fridge, it hadn’t been there long and it was still lukewarm. She drank it anyways as she wandered though the large empty house.

Alone, always alone.                                            

Growing up she’d had no one, as she bounced from group home to foster family to more group homes and finally to the streets.  She was always the outsider, the burden, the freak. Only once had she felt like she had her own family. She’d been three and she’d lived with a family until they had their own baby and they gave her back.  The greatest pain of all was that remembered what it was like to be loved,  it was a soft voice in her ear reading her Winnie the Pooh, a mug of hot chocolate with cinnamon sprinkled on the top, a scarf tied around her neck and pulled up over her nose.  It was better to never have been loved at all, then to feel the miserable aching hole in her heart. She lived the rest of her life longing for love, trying to get that feeling back.

She pulled another beer from the fridge, twisting off the cap and throwing it in the sink.

Her search for love got her in trouble at seventeen. She met Neal, he was older and a little bit of a bad, boy, but he took care of her and he loved her. She wanted so badly to love and be loved, to be part of a family, she let herself get seduced into a life that she didn’t truly want. At 17 she was pregnant and it was her chance to have a family that she’d always dreamed of. She loved Henry more than anything, and she wouldn’t change it for the world. But she spent five years trapped in a relationship that made her skin crawl. She tried hard to ignore it, for family, but in the end she couldn’t be with him, couldn’t be with a man.

She downed a third beer to chase the disturbing memories back to the recesses of her mind.

Since then there had been many a one night stands with gorgeous women, because her longer lasting relationships never made it too far, in the end she always ran. With women, she felt that deep emotional connection that she longed for, something she’d never come close to feeling with Neal in five years that they were together. With women it came on fast and strong, it was kind and it warm. It scared her. It was too close to that feeling of love she’d first and only experienced at the age of three. She couldn’t bear to let herself feel that again, only for it to be taken from her. She didn’t deserve that kind of happiness. So she ran. She ran from the feelings as much as she’d spent her whole life running to them.

Another beer and another speeding train of thoughts that whipped though her, taunting her. 

And still she’d come running here to Storybrooke to find that happiness, to find that love.  This was her chance to make a home for her and Henry, to find a place where they belonged. She was a vibrant paradox, shivering and shuddering, hoping and fearing the finish line.

She paced to the kitchen for another beer, refreshing and cold now, and a bag of cheetos.  Then she stomped to the living room and collapsed on the couch to catch the end of a baseball game.  

“You should put a coaster under that bottle dear, you’ll ruin the wood.”

Emma jumped, spilling cheetos and orange dust down her shirt front and over the couch cushions, “What the hell?”

She was gorgeous at least, this woman suddenly standing in front of her.  Hands on her hips, she glared at the cold bottle of beer that was dripping condensation onto the coffee table.

“Where did you even come from?”

“This is my house. I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, wrecking my furniture.”

For a crazy lady she was pretty hot. Dressed in slacks, a white blouse and a sexy ass vest, she looked at once severe and graceful. Dark hair fell in soft waves to her shoulders and Emma momentarily wondered what it would be like to have her hands tangled in its silky strands. Her lips pursed in disgust, they were full and painted a sexy dark red. A scar, just above her lip, that looked entirely kissable.  “Uhmmm, actually I’m renting this place. I got the keys today, I moved in….I’m Emma Swan.” 

The woman glanced with disdain at Emma’s outstretched hand, her fingers orange with cheeto dust, “I’m Regina Mills and this is my house.”

“Look I’ll show you the papers, and then I’m going to have to call the cops. In fact,” She slurred, chucking to herself at her own wit, “I am the cops, almost.” She stumbled slightly getting to her feet and padded to the front hall to grab the rental agreement.  

“Look,” She waved the document, “Look at today’s date and my name-” The living room was empty. “Where the hell did you go lady, this isn’t funny.”

_Shit._  She was buzzed.

She popped open the last beer and it wasn’t long before she was passed out on the couch.

When she woke up the next morning with a kink in her neck and a cheeto in her bra, she was convinced that the night before had been nothing but an alcohol induced vivid dream.

* * *

 

 “I’m sensing a pattern here.”

“Good god woman,” Emma startled, spilling beer down her front.

The brunette positioned herself between Emma and the TV, arms crossed over her chest.  “Another sloppy night in front of the TV, I think you’re getting a little belly there,” She continued with a shake of her head.

“What? No I’m not.” Emma lifted her shirt and patted her belly, “I’m ripped lady.”

She blushed and averted her gaze, “I… I can see that dear. You may put your shirt down.”

“What, don’t like what you see?” Emma smirked.

“On the contrary…” She coughed and chanced another glance.

Emma winked conspiratorially, “So what is this, another dream? A prank?” It had been three days since the gorgeous woman had first appeared and she had to admit that her observations concerning her nightly routine were in fact correct. Emma had spent all three nights vegged out in front of the TV, making her way through a six pack of beer and a bag of some salty snack or other.

“This is my house and someone appears to have rented it to you by mistake.” She began to pace, her dark eyes flashing with irritation.

“Look there was no one here when I came to look at the place, no one even mentioned the previous owner.”  Emma sat up, reaching for a handful of popcorn. ¨And also, where have you been the past few days anyways.”

“I was…I was…” She paled, her voice shaking with uncertainly, “I was here of course.”

“Bullshit, I never see you around.¨ Emma challenged, “You just appear at random and scare me to death.” 

“I’m….I…” She turned on her heel and slipped quickly from the room.

The blonde shook her head and spoke to the now empty room, “I’ve got to stop drinking like this man, I’m looking my mind.”

But there were two innings left in the game and she didn’t feel like facing them empty handed and clear headed.

* * *

 

_Damnit if the crazy lady didn’t get to me._ The next morning had her dragging herself out of bed and going for a run.

 As the sun came up, a bright golden ball rising from the trees, she explored the small town she would learn to hall her home.  The quaint storefronts along Main Street were pretty cute, and she wondered if she might find a postcard to send to August. He was her one connection from her childhood, a foster brother, and now her only friend.  Cute little stores didn’t come close to the lemurs and lions that populated his adventures, but he always liked hearing from her, she knew that.

She ran past the school where Henry would start at in a couple of weeks, an elementary and high school all rolled into one. She wondered if they would stay here long enough for him to go to high school, or would she run again.

 She got a good look at the Sheriff’s department, with a single cruiser parked in front, and she found herself looking forward to working there.

There was a good old fashioned diner, with a red and white sign that boasted a four ninety-nine all-inclusive breakfast.  Next to take out Chinese, she and the kid lived for diner food, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The bell rang above the door as she ran by, and she knew a good many meals would be spent there.

She finished her run through the woods that surrounded the town. It was peaceful in the woods, where it was lush and green and where a fine mist filtered through the heavy canopy of leaves above her head.  The needle covered paths were soft beneath her feet, her steps barely making a sound.  

 In the comforting arms of the trees, a sliver of hope, and a shiver of excitement crept into her head and she dared to believe that this would actually be the place where she would finally belong.

 The late August sun brought a faint layer of humidity over the early morning and she was glad to come back to an air conditioned home. She tramped through the house and stuck her head under the tap for a much needed drink.

 “You tracked mud though my house.”

“Damnit,” Emma jolted upright, hitting her head on the faucet on the way up. “You have got to stop doing that.”

Regina paused, taking in the blonde’s sweat slicked body, scantily clad in a sports bra and shorts. Her gaze lingered over her powerful legs and arms, her flat muscled stomach. “I—I’m so sorry, let me get you some ice.” She reached for the freezer door, and her hand fell through the handle.

“Holy crap!” Emma exclaimed, “You’re dead.”

“No I’m not…I’m not…” She whispered, colour leaching from her skin and her hands began to shake.

“You’re a freaking ghost.”

“Stop saying that.” Determination ticked a muscle in her cheek as she tried again to open the door. Panic rose in deep brown eyes as her hand passed through the door a second time.

She ran from the room.

“I’m sorry Regina, I’m so sorry!” Emma looked around helplessly, “Look, I won’t call you a ghost anymore, I’m sorry.”

But she didn’t appear.

Emma put her shoes away in the front hall and mopped up the mud in vain hopes Regina would reappear. “Come on out Regina, It’s all clean.”

Not a whisper.

_Was she going crazy?_   A few days on her own and here she was talking to ghost. That, or she was talking to herself. 

Either way she was nuts.

And she couldn’t blame it on the beer anymore.

Much later when she sank down on the couch to watch the game, she tried again to coax the woman from hiding. “I’m about to put my beer down on the table without a coaster. I’m going to do it.”

Still, when she didn’t appear, Emma guiltily placed the bottle on a coaster.

 She began to worry.  _Worry over a ghost? Really?_

She took herself too bed, only to be woken in the middle of the night by someone crying.  

When she turned on the light, it was Regina who lay in the bed beside her, beautiful Regina with tears streaming down her face, her body shaking with sobs. “I’m dead. Emma, I’m dead.”

“Oh hey now, don’t say that.”

“I’m dead, that’s the truth isn’t it.”  She laughed bitterly, “I’m a freaking ghost.”

“Uh well…”

“Your words in fact.” 

“I’m so sorry Regina.”

“Do you think that you could help me find out what happened to me?”  Her voice was small and scared, more belonging to a child after waking up from a nightmare. Only Regina couldn’t wake up, she was living the nightmare, not quite existing but still present and tortured.

“I… Of course.”  It was the least she could do after shattering her world. “Do you remember anything at all?”

“N-N-No.” Panicked sobs tore though her small frame.

“Hey now, there, there, it’s going to be all right.” She went to rub her back, to trace small infinities   in a soothing pattern, like she would when Henry came to her bed crying.  But she thought better of it, thinking her hands would pass though the woman beside her, a frightening reminder at her ghostly reality. 

A barking laugh, a sniffle of tears, “How can you say that, I’m dead, there’s no way that it’s going to be alright.”

“I…” She got her there.

“Emma?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I stay here tonight? With you?”

The words that fell from her lips, were so quiet and full of terror that she longed to pull the petite woman into her arms. “Of course.”

“Thanks.” Her eyes fluttered shut, tears still leaking from beneath full dark lashes.

“Night Regina,” She whispered and turned out the light.

“Goodnight.”


	2. Chapter 2

Emma woke the next morning, bathed in the warmth of the sun’s rays, and of the soft gaze of the brunette lying beside her. She stretched languidly, an unexpected moan escaping her lips, and the brown eyes that watched her darkened with unchecked desire.

“Morning.”

“Good morning dear, did you sleep well?”

“I did.” She raised herself on one arm, taking in the other woman, with her hair perfectly coifed, still wearing the same pantsuit and vest. “Did you even sleep at all?”

“It would seem ghosts don’t sleep.”

“Oh.” A painful reminder. “Let me put some clothes on and we’ll figure this mess out.”

Regina waited primly on the edge of the bed, while Emma showered and tugged on some jeans and a t-shirt. She quietly followed Emma out the door and down the tree lined streets of Storybrooke as they made their way to the diner.

Emma pulled up a seat at the counter, absentmindedly pulling out the chair beside her.

“Hey, I’m Ruby.” A tall lanky brunette with a wide smile appeared before her, setting down a menu with a flourish, “Can I start you off with anything?”

“Get the pancakes with apple butter, they’re delicious…and if I could just smell them…” A husky voice whispered in her ear.

“Jesus you have to stop doing that.” Emma hissed.

“Excuse me?” Ruby’s features were screwed up in confusion.

“Nothing.” Emma shook her head quickly and with a quick glance at the woman next to her, she added, “Uh hey, I’m Emma, Emma Swan. And uh…I’ll get the pancakes with apple butter.”

“Oh thank you Emma,” Regina beamed.

Emma’s heart skipped a beat at that smile. And in that moment, she knew that the rest of her life would be devoted to making Regina happy, to see that smile day after day.  

Ruby paled, “Are…are you sure? No one has ordered them since…”

 “Yeah, I’m sure.”  That was a clue, at least Ruby knew Regina. But food would come first. The power of suggestion made her ravenous.

“Oooookayyyy, they’ll be coming right up in just a few minutes. Anything else I can get for you?”

“Oh, I’d love a hot chocolate with cinnamon.”

Ruby laughed, “You’re weird Emma, Emma Swan, I like that about you.”

“Thanks?” She liked this town already, it felt more like home than any previous way stop.

It wasn’t long before a plate of golden brown pancakes appeared before her, with a dollop of apple butter and a twist of whipped cream.

“These smell heavenly,” Regina sighed deeply.

“No pun intended,” Emma mumbled in return, winking at her companion.

“Oh be quiet.” She quipped. And then she laughed, low and sultry.

Emma inhaled the first pancake, then the second, before calling out to the woman behind the counter. “Hey Ruby!”

“Yeah? How is everything?”

“Oh it’s great,” The blonde wiped her mouth hastily on the checkered red and white napkin she found beside her plate. “I was wondering…What can you tell me about Regina Mills? I’m renting her place.”

Ruby looked around nervously, as if there might be someone to save her from the awful fate of answering Emma’s question. “You haven’t heard?”

“No?” Emma paused mid bite and beside her, Regina drew in an audible breath.

“She was in a car accident about six months ago.” The tall brunette explained, “She’s at Storybrooke General as far as I know. She’s in a coma, has been since the accident.”

“I’m not dead, Emma I’m not dead.”

“That’s great news!” Emma exclaimed.

Ruby raised her eye brows.

“I mean… you know… it’s great because she’s not dead.”

“Yeah I guess?”

“Emma lets go,” Regina brown eyes darted towards the door, “Please?”

“Yeah, I gotta go.” She pulled a crumpled twenty from her pocket and tossed it in the general direction of the waitress.  “Keep the change,” She called, as the door to the diner banged shut behind her.

* * *

 

She wished she’d driven her car, because the seven long blocks to the hospital were taken at nearly a run.

And still the journey wasn’t over fast enough.

Out of breath, and with a stitch in her side, she collapsed on the information desk. “Hi.” Pant. Pant. “I’m here to visit Regina Mills.”

A few clicks of the mouse, followed by a painfully slow two finger typing, before the woman replied, “Regina Mills, room four-oh – six. I’ll call Dr. Whale and have him meet you up there.”

“Thanks.” And Emma jogged to the bank of elevators, dancing from foot to foot while they waited the long minute before the doors opened with a ping.

A man in a white coat met them at the door to her room, the name embroidered into the pocket of his white lab coat, proclaiming him Dr Whale.

“Hi, I’m here to visit Regina Mills,” Emma repeated, anxiously looking over his shoulder at the half open door that was sure to lead to Regina.

“That’s what the nurse told me on the phone.” He crossed his arms over his chest, “You see, no one has visited her in the six months she’s been here. So, who are you and why is it that just now you’re coming to see her?”

“My name is Emma Swan, I’m actually the new Sherriff for Storybrooke…And she…well…I’m her girlfriend.”

“Emma no, he’ll never believe that,” Regina protested frantically.

“I’ve seen the way you look at me, I know you’re into the ladies.” The blonde whispered.

“It’s not that, Emma.” Brown eyes were downcast as she continued, “It’s just I didn’t exactly date. Ever.”

The doctor shook his head, voicing Regina’s fears, “Regina didn’t exactly date.”

“I… Uh…it was long distance. We’d only been together a few weeks. I thought she didn’t want to see me anymore when I stopped hearing from her. I just found out that it was because she was in a coma. Please can I see her, I feel terrible for thinking the worst all this time,” Emma begged, green eyes wide and innocent.

He shrugged then and glanced back at the door. “Sure, whatever, it’s not like she’s going to notice anyways.”

“Is there no hope that she’ll wake up then?”

“She has healed well all things considering. There is no remaining damage from the crash. There’s no reason why she shouldn’t wake up and be just fine. However, it has been six months of no change and we aren’t so hopeful anymore.”

“What about family?” She blurted, “Haven’t they been here to visit her?”

“Far as I know she doesn’t have much family. She’s got a mother, she’s the senator for Maine in fact. Though we’re only to call her is she wakes up, or if she passes.”

She glanced at the brunette beside her, who was carefully studying the ceiling tiles through the unmistakable sheen of tears filled her eyes. “That’s terrible.”

He shrugged again, “You can go ahead in, just press the call button if you need anything.” And he wandered off down the hall, immediately preoccupied by his phone.

Emma pushed open the door and it was a few moments before her eyes adjusted to the dim light. The woman on the bed was indeed the same woman as the one who had been following her every move these past few days. Her dark eyelashes fluttered in stark contrast against the creamy flawless skin of her cheeks. Her lips were full, and the scar was still entirely too kissable. Her hair was longer, reaching her shoulders in soft waves. “Oh God Regina, you’re beautiful.”

“I’m in a coma.”

“But you’re alive. You’re alive and you’re beautiful.”        

“I’m alive.”

“You are, Regina. Look your heart is beating.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Why am I like this?” Utter devastation dragged her gaze down to her ghostly form.

“I don’t know.”

“How can you see me and no one else can?”

“I don’t know.”

Tears spilled from her warm brown eyes and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. “I’m not dead.”

“No Regina, you’re not.” She stepped closer to the other woman, reaching instinctively for her trembling hand. The blonde stopped short when she realized she’d be coming up empty. She smiled warmly, hoping, wishing that it would be enough, “You’re beautiful and you’re alive.”

“But I’m trapped.” She protested with a strangled sob and then she was gone, floating out the door and disappearing down the hall.

“Regina!”  She called and called until a nurse asked her to please quiet down because she was disrupting the other patients. Emma didn’t care, not when Regina was alone in this world. Trapped and scared.

Heart heavy, brimming with determination, to be the savior, to rescue Regina from her prison, Emma returned to the mansion.

Alone.

Scared.

* * *

 

Regina appeared later when Emma was cooking dinner.

“You’re burning the onions.”

Emma barely startled, she was getting used to the other woman appearing and disappearing without warning.

“Thanks.” A heavy silence loomed between them, a silence filled with the memories of the hospital and of the uncertain future.

But slowly they began to fall into a comfortable rhythm together, Regina with her suggestions to save Emma’s meal and Emma desperate to impress, following them to the letter. 

They laughed when Emma cut the carrots and the pieces flew across the room, rolling under the fridge.

They squealed when the oil got too hot and spit at them.

They cheered when Emma plated her meal.

And they chatted as Emma ate her dinner.

Regina scolded her as she cleaned up, reminding her not to use the rough sponge on the Teflon pan. 

And Emma pulled a beer, just one, from the fridge and took a swig before breaking down the wall that separated their playful dinner banter from the events of the day. “Uhhh look I’m sorry about the accident, the coma, your mother…”

“At least I’m not dead,” She said precisely, emotion flitting behind her eyelids while she stared down the granite counter top.

“Maybe you’ll wake up?

“Maybe,” She sighed, “Otherwise, why am I here?”

“I don’t know.” Emma repeated for the countless time.

“How is it that only you can see me?”

“I don’t know, maybe its fate or some crap, and I’m supposed to help you?”

“Or maybe you’re just crazy?” She grinned, lifting her gaze.

“Maybe?” Emma chuckled.

They watched a movie together, Regina’s choice, it was the least she could do when the woman just found out she was in a coma. It was some chick flick and tears came fast and furious for the both of them. Emma wasn’t a touchy person, but with Regina, it was all she could think of to pull her into an embrace, to hold her hand, to wrap her arm around her waist. It just that she wanted what she couldn’t have, that alone made the desire stronger. That was it.

After the movie, Regina climbed into bed with her.  “I thought you couldn’t sleep.”

“I can’t,” She blushed, “But its comforting being with you, watching you sleep.”

Emma shrugged and turned her back to pull a basketball jersey over her head before she slipped beneath the covers. 

She looked at the woman lying on her back beside her, her hands clasped in front of her, carefully averting her gaze.

“Night Regina.”

“Good Night Emma?”

Only then did she turn, and their eyes met. 

Perhaps it was fate.

* * *

 

She appeared on the toilet seat the next day as Emma stepped out of the shower.

“Jesus Regina.”  And she wrapped the towel more tightly around her.

“I’ve seen you in a lot less,” The brunette shrugged.

“I can’t say I mind, although the gawking in this relationship a little one sided now, and I hardly think that’s fair.” Emma returned, tongue in cheek.

“Oh so this is a relationship now?”

“It’s something,” Emma grinned.

“Or you’re insane.”

“You keep saying that!” She crossed her arms over her chest, holding the towel more snuggly in place, and sticking out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout, “So what’s up?”

“Oh…I suppose I remember my life...before.”

“Why didn’t you say so!”  She dropped the towel in a puddle on the floor and scurried buck naked into the walk in closet. “Let me get dressed and we’ll talk!”

The older woman giggled, a furious blush creeping across her features, the image of pale cheeks disappearing  into the walk in closet, was not a sight she’d soon forget.

 Emma stepped back into the room, nearly crashing into Regina hovering at the door. “Alright, tell me.”

Her eyes sparkled with a childlike excitement. “Come.”

And she led her outside, Emma taking the steps two at a time to keep up.

“This tree, it’s a Honey Crisp tree. My father gave it to me as a girl, it was just a seedling then. He showed me how to tend to it and look at it now. I remember. He gave me his love of nature, he taught me to ride, to speak to the horses and speak to the trees. I loved him dearly.”

“Where is he now?” Emma struggled not to bombard the other woman with questions, words jumbled and clustered on the tip of her tongue. 

“He passed away when I was in my final year of university?”

“Oh god, I’m sorry Regina…”

She shook her head, “He was a lot older than my mother, he lived a good life.”

“And your mother, she’s a senator?” One question, just one.

Slowly, methodically, Regina told her story. “Yes, she is the Senator of Maine. She was mayor of this town before I was. When she moved up, I moved in. Win-win for the both of us.”

“Wait holy shit you’re the mayor.” She couldn’t help herself.

“I was.” She shrugged, coming to stand beneath the tree, gazing up though the branches. Her manicured fingers caressing the air, as if aching to reach the bark. “I’m thirty six years old. I was born here and spent my life in this town, except for the four years I spent at Yale. My mother brought me into politics, groomed me, and I became mayor about ten years ago.”

“Oh man if I wasn’t intimidated before, I am now. That’s sexy. Damn.”

Regina smiled, blushed, but continued unheeded, “I didn’t lead such a glamorous life. I didn’t have any friends. First I was the mayor’s daughter, people stayed away. Then I became the mayor and I was even more feared. ”

“Oh god, Regina I’m sorry. It’s their loss, you’re a special woman.” Emma inched her hand towards one of Regina’s own.

She shook her head, “You know I didn’t date. There was only a boy in high school, we fell in love. My mother though she found out and next thing we know he was sent packing, military school, the army. We didn’t have the freedom of email, lost contact with no help from our parents, my mother especially. I heard he was killed a few years later. I always blamed myself for that. If it wasn’t for me, for my mother, he wouldn’t be dead.”

“You can’t,” She gasped.

“I do.” Regina shivered.

“Come, let’s sit inside, it’s chilly out.” It wasn’t. But the mood had shifted to overcast.

Emma opened a bottle of wine and they managed an awkward laugh when Regina floated through Emma’s glass in an attempt to taste the fragrant bouquet.

Then they sat, side by side, as Regina continued to speak late into the evening.

About her father mostly. Those were happy memories. Horseback riding. Road Trips. Her secret Quinceañera.

About her life at its most recent time points. Those were lonely memories. She had her work, her garden, her passion for cooking.

About her dreams. Elusive at the best of times, today felt impossible. She wanted a family, children, a house filled with chaos.

Emma just listened, watching the way the other woman spoke with her hands, the way her brows animated, and the way her scar quirked.

Much later in the safe cocoon of darkness, they were spooned together, close as they might given the circumstances. Regina whispered, a forbidden memory, “I remembered something else.”

“What is it ‘Gina?” Emma mumbled sleepily.

“They used to call me the Evil Queen.”

The blonde stiffened then slowly reminded herself to relax into the space about the other woman. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Oh it’s very true. The people, they feared me, they hated me, much as they hated and feared my mother. Much as I feared and hated my mother.”

“I’m so sorry Regina.”

“I’m a different person when I’m with you, Emma.”

“I wish everyone could see this you, you’re beautiful and loving and kind and just…the way you tell stories could have just about anyone falling in love with you.”

“Perhaps they will, one day.”

“I will do anything. Anything. Regina. So that you will see that day.”

“Thank you…I….”

“I know, me too…You’ve changed my life.”

It had all happened too fast.

Maybe she was crazy.

Maybe it was fate.

* * *

 

**A/N: Editing this is soooo much harder than getting the bones of the story out of my fingertips! And a lot less fun! Here’s an attempt at a second chapter before I run off to do Camp NaNo!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Once Upon a Time**

* * *

 

_Honk. Honk. Honk_.

Neal had arrived, as obnoxious as ever, pulling his pickup into the driveway.

Henry was already tumbling out of the passenger seat and into her arms before the truck had stopped moving.

“Hey, hey kid I missed you.”

“Yeah Ma, missed you too.”

She held him at arm’s length, ruffling his hair, “Did you grow? I think you grew.”

“Don’t be gross ma, it’s only been a week.” He squirmed away, the pre-teen had clearly reached his limit for mush. “Wow this house is huge!”  

“Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. Go ahead and pick a room upstairs, any one you want, except of course for my room.”

“Cool!” He raced inside, stumbling over his too-long for-his-body-legs

Emma laughed, turning at last to Neal, standing awkwardly beside the truck. “Hey big guy, how was the drive?” She punched him in the shoulder, let him bring her in for a side hug.

“Not bad, not bad.  We stopped for a burger along the way.” He shook his head, “The kids growing up man, he eats more than me.”

“Tell me about it _man_.”

_Bang. Bang. Bang._

They both looked up at Henry, waving and grinning from _his_ bedroom window. It was moments like this when it wasn’t awkward, they could smile and laugh together, love their kid together. It was just all the other moments in between that grated so uncomfortably. 

“Looks like he’s ready to go,” She shrugged, “Guess that means we should get his stuff inside.”

“Sure.”

Neal joined her, lugging his duffels inside, dropping the endless boxes of books just inside the door.

They lingered uncomfortably now, their gazes both intent on the smooth marble floor of the foyer.

“Thanks for, you know, letting me have him.”

“Sure,” She shrugged again, “It’s the least I can do.”

He stepped forward, kissing her cheek, his beard rough on her skin. “You’re looking good Emma. Happy. I hope you’ll be ok here.”

She supressed the urge to scrub at her face, “Thanks, we’ll be great.”

“Cool, I guess I should go then.”

“I guess so.” She turned, yelling up the stairs, her voice echoing in the large house, “Henry come and say goodbye to your Dad.”

He thundered down the stairs and flung his arms around the burly man, “Bye Dad, see you later.” And he was off again scrambling up the stairs and stomping down the hall to his newly chosen room.

“Bye Neal. Safe drive.” She felt like she was herding him out the door.

“Bye Em.”

When he at last disappeared down the street, she shut the door and slung a duffle over her shoulder, “I’m coming up kid, let’s see what room you picked.”

“This one Ma.”  He waved her over to the window, “Look, you can see the whole town from here. See that clock tower, I’ve been sitting here waiting and the time hasn’t changed. Do you think that means it’s haunted?”

“I dunno.”

“I bet it is. I know it is.” The boy was lost in thought for a moment, gaze trained on the building across town. “Hey Ma?”

“Yeah bud?”

“The back yard is huge, can we get a pool?”  He turned to her, beaming, eyes wide and hopeful.

“We’ll see Henry, we’ll see.”

“Yes!” He pumped his fist in the air.

“I didn’t say yes.”

“But you didn’t say no either.”

* * *

 

“You should sprinkle red pepper flakes between the layers, it’s my secret ingredient. Gives it some kick.”

Th-Thanks, Regina.” Emma was entranced by the brunette leaning against the counter, watching her with dark eyes, her full red lips curved up in a smile. So much so that she stumbled over her words, simple as they were. “So, how much do I put?”

“Just a little, spread it evenly.”

“Like this?” She turned in search of confirmation, but stopped, forgot to breathe for a beat. Two. Regina hovered just behind her, so close she could almost imagine the heat from her body, her breath on the back of her neck.

“Yes, yes that’s fine.”

She swayed, their proximity made it hard to hold a single rational thought in her mind. She was desperate to hold the other woman in her arms, wanted to press her back against the counter with her hips, kiss her.

Shit.

She hoped this was a by-product of ghostly energy, because what she felt, she hadn’t felt in a long time. Maybe ever. There was that girl, the first girl, five years ago. But even that, no, not like this.

Shit.

Reluctantly, she tore her gaze from the other woman, damn that scar, and slid the lasagna into the oven.  “Hey kid come help me with the salad, and then we’ll be just about ready to go.”

There was a muffled stomp of stocking feet arriving from the other room before he appeared in the doorway. Stopped cold. “Uh Ma? Who’s that?”

“You can see me?”

“You can see her?”

“Yeah? Duh.”  

The two women stared open mouthed.

“Ma? Hello? Who is she? I can’t believe this, this is so unfair. I’m gone for a week and you get a new girlfriend.” His cheeks flushed red in anger. 

“She’s not…I mean…”

“You should tell him, Emma. If he can see me… he should know.”

“My kid is going to think I’m crazy.”

“What is going on? Ma?  You promised me you’d always be honest about who you date.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

“She uh…”

“I’m Regina Mills.”  She extended her hand to shake, before realization flashed across her face and she lowered it to her side once more.

“Ok…”

“This is Regina, this is Regina’s house. You see kid, she was in a car accident and now she’s in the hospital in a coma, she won’t wake up.”

“Uh, she’s standing right here.”

“That’s Regina’s ghost or spirit or something. Her body is in the hospital.”

“Is this some kind of joke? It’s ok if she’s your new girlfriend, I just want to know these things.”

“It’s not a joke, I’m not your mother’s girlfriend. I am a ghost, my body is across town in the hospital. I can prove it to you.”

And she glided into the middle of the kitchen island.

“Holy shit.”

“Language, Henry!”

“Do you believe me now?” She asked with a shudder. “This is rather uncomfortable.”

“Yeah… I guess so.”

She shuddered and returned to stand next to Emma, “That was terrible.”

“I’m sorry,” She whispered and they swayed towards each other in a longing for comfort, pulled together by a greater force that transcended the two worlds they inhabited.

“Hey, we still need that salad.”

He shook off the last of his surprise, “That’s debatable Ma.”

“Yeah yeah, I would agree, but we are having salad whether you want it or not.” She handed him a cutting board and a paring knife.

“Uh how much do I make?” He glanced at Regina

“I can’t eat Henry dear, just make enough for you and your mother.”

“Oh, ok cool.”

“Veggies are in the fridge, and I’m making some garlic bread to make up for the rabbit food.”

“Yes!”

Dinner was a quiet affair, Henry kept casting curious glances at the brunette.

 

“I could go.” She shifted uneasily in her seat.

 

“No, no.  Regina, please stay.”

 

“Henry?”

 

He shrugged.

 

Regina struggled to fill the silence, “I think you’ll like it here Henry. We have the best ice ream parlour, it will still be open for another couple of weeks, you and your mother should go. I believe she’s already found Granny’s Diner…”

 

“Yeah, and let me tell you, it has the best pancakes ever! And cheeseburgers. And grilled cheese.”

 

“Can we go for breakfast then?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“The school is close by Henry, you could come home for lunch, and I’m sure you’ll like being able to sleep in.”

 

“Cool.” He dismissed her with a shrug and pushed his plate away. “Can I go now?”

 

“Sure, clear your plate.”

 

“Thanks for dinner.” 

 

“He’s a good kid.” Regina said after Henry offered to help with the dishes. Emma had waved him off to finish setting up his PlayStation, promising him a game after dinner.

 

“Yeah he can be.”

 

“You love him a lot, I can tell,”

 

“I do.”  She wiped her hands on a dishtowel, folded it twice to hang on the oven door, before she could look at Regina again, tears in her eyes. “He’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”

 

“And you you’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”

 

“Regina don’t say that. It’s just because you’re the only one that can see me.” She forced a laugh past her teeth. It was true, she felt it too, but it was too soon. And Emma, never one to be good with emotions, turned it into a joke.

 

“That too Emma, that too.” Her words soft, soothing.

 

“So uh is she always just going to be here?” Henry asked moments later when she sank onto the overstuffed couch beside him, Regina on her other side.

 

“Henry!”  Emma exclaimed with a glance at the brunet, “Don’t be rude.”

 

“Sorry Regina,” He mumbled, “I was just wondering.”

 

“I’ll go.”

 

“Regina no, stay.”

 

“No, it’s Henrys first night back, I’ll go.”

 

“Will I see you later?”

 

“If you want?”

“I want.”

 

A faint smile returned to her lips, “Alright. Good night Henry it was nice meeting you.”

 

“Yeah you too.”

 

By the time Emma looked up from the controller Henry handed her, she was gone.

 

* * *

 

But she didn’t see her that night, and she didn’t see her the next morning. The kitchen was empty as she cleaned up after lunch and dammit if she didn’t miss her terribly.

 

She very nearly wanted to go and set her hot mug of coffee down on some mahogany table just to get a reaction out of her.

 

They left to go to the hardware store, and she hesitated at the door, stepping back inside to yell, “Were going out!”

 

But there was no answer.

 

So when a husky voice interrupted them later that afternoon, Emma jumped about four feet in the air.

 

“What is going on in here?”

 

Emma and Henry looked up guiltily, grins plastered across their faces.

 

“Nothing Mom,” The blonde teased.

 

“Yeah Mom, nothing,” Henry snickered, hiding a dripping paintbrush behind his back.

 

Regina stepped further into the room, looking around at the paint dripping everywhere, down the walls, speckles on the ceiling, all over the drop cloths, and absolutely all over both guilty Swans.

 

In a flash, Emma flung the paintbrush from behind her back, a graceful arch of blue paint flying through the air, straight towards Regina, straight _through_ Regina to hit the wall behind her.

 

Emma hesitated, wondering if she’d one too far.

 

But the brunette grinned, “Is that the best you’ve got dear?

 

Henry was next, sending the paint flying though her right arm. “Gotcha!”

 

The paint war continued, Regina dodging easily out of the way, while Emma and Henry were soon stiff with streaks of drying paint.

 

The walls did eventually get properly covered in blue paint, and the ceiling was scrubbed and painted a clean white.

 The Swans hosed themselves down outside and the three of them settled into the routine of dinner, dishes and Playstation.

 

“Henry it’s time for bed. Now. We played two extra games so I don’t want to hear any more excuses. ”

 

“Wait, wait! But Regina promised me that she’d help me put up the glow in the dark stars we got.”

 

“Now?”

 

“Please Ma it won’t take long?  She said she knows all the constellations.”

 

“Please Emma.”

 

She was powerless against the two sets of brown eyes, “Fine.”

 

“Yes!”

 

Emma watched from the doorway, Regina pointing and Henry sticking, bouncing up and down on the bed.

 

Even after all his promises, it still took him a while to get settled down enough for Emma to tuck him in.

 

“Hey wait Regina.” He called to her.

 

“Yes Henry.”

 

“I guess you’re really pretty cool, for a ghost I mean.  I had a fun time today. “

 

“Thank you, I did too. I do like the company if you don’t mind, it’s rather lonely being a ghost, when there are only two people in the world who can see you.”

 

“It’s cool. You can hang out with us.”

 

“Thank you, goodnight dear.”

 

“Night Regina.”

 

Emma smiled at the exchange, and her hand moved to the small of her back, so natural a gesture but a fatal mistake. Her hand passed right through her and Regina shivered.  “Shit sorry.”

 

“It…its fine.” She turned sharply, her form vibrating from shock.

 

“Regna!” She cried desperately. Quietly.  “Wait. I’ll be out in a few minutes ok?” But she was gone and she was talking to an empty doorway.

 

She cursed herself for being so forgetful and insensitive.

 

“It must be pretty sucky to be a ghost,” Henry mused.

 

“I can’t even imagine.”

 

“I kind of wish she was real you know?”

 

“You do?” That caught her attention, and she dragged her gaze from the empty doorway.

 

“Yeah, you really like her Ma, you’re happy here.”

 

“I am, and I do.”

 

“It’s too bad the first girl you like in like forever is a ghost.”

 

“Just my luck eh?”

 

He giggled, eyes drooping with sleep.

 

“Ok, night Henry.”

 

“Night Ma.”

 

She found Regina already lying on the bed, her dark eyes brimming with sorrow. She looked so forlorn there and small, curled up in a fetal position.

 

Emma tugged off her clothes without turning her back this time. She couldn’t bear to tear herself away from those sad, sad eyes. She couldn’t hold her in her arms, but she could hold her gaze, in a desperate attempt to provide some comfort.

 

“Emma,” She whispered, as the blonde climbed into bed.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I wish you could touch me.”  She whispered.

 

“Regina I uhm…” She flushed.

 

 “No, no, not like that.”

 

“Not like that?” Emma pouted.

 

“Well like that too,” She nibbled on her lower lip, “But like you did earlier. It was all so normal, after a normal day, it was all so normal, and I loved it.

 

“Except it wasn’t. Normal I mean.”

 

“But it could be. It could be Emma.”

 

“I would love that, more than anything Regina.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ah! Must finish this before the next Swan Queen Week! That’s bad!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Once Upon a Time.

“This is the hospital?” Henry paused before the three-story building, eyes wide with disbelief.

“This is it.”

“Storybrooke only has about nine thousand residents and Portland is only two hours away.” Regina explained.

“I guess that makes sense. It’s just so tiny, are you sure they can take good care of you here?”

Regina chuckled, “You’re very thoughtful Henry, but I can assure you that the care is top notch.”

They made their way to the third floor, “Dr. Whale hi, this is my son Henry. We’re here to see Regina.”

Henry held out his hand only to be turned down with a slight scowl of disgust.

The doctor studied Emma, looking her up and down, his gaze settling with an uneasy smirk on her chest, before he dragged it away to meet her eyes once more. “You must have really liked her.”

“I did,” Emma replied with a tight smile, crossing her arms over her chest, “I do.”

Regina blushed and came to hover at her shoulder, the closeness providing only the slightest of comfort.  

“Very well then, you know where it is.”

The three of them swept into the room.

“Woah,” Henry ran to her side, “It’s really you.”

“Yes dear, it’s me.”

“Hey, I’m really sorry this happened to you Regina.”

“Thank you Henry.”

His brow furrowed, and he worried his lip, glancing back and forth between the woman on the bed and the woman hovering beside Emma. “So can’t we just like stick you back in your body? Like squash you into one.”

“It can’t be that easy can it?”

He gaped at them, “Well did you try it?”

“Uh no…”                                            

“Then let’s do it.” He said brightly, “Regina just like lie down inside your body, see if you stick.”

So she moved silently to the bed, laying down, disappearing, and the two figures melded into one.

 

And when she didn’t appear right away, Emma and Henry held their breath.

A minute passed.

A long minute.

But then Regina’s sprit was waving her arms, lifting her legs from the bed. She sat up, then stood beside the bed, staring forlornly down at the empty shell of who she used to be. “I’m afraid I’m just not sticking.”

Emma lifted a limp hand from the bed, taking it in her own, the skin soft and cool to the touch.

Regna gasped, “I can almost feel that.”

“That’s a good sign,” Henry exclaimed, “Well, I think it is. What do you think Ma?”

“I think so too, I think there’s hope. There’s got to be a way, somewhere out there, we’ll find it,” She said confidently, determination flickering in her bright green eyes.

“I can’t investigate on an empty stomach,” Henry protested.

“Cheeseburger,” Emma suggested.

“Cheeseburger.” He nodded.

They high-fived.

“Let’s go.” Emma winked at Regina, leaning over the bed to kiss her cheek.  

She blushed quite a deep shade of red, “Thank you.”

“Ooooh Regina you like my Moooooom.”

“Henry!”

“Henry!”

They cried in unison.

“It’s cool guys, I don’t mind,” He just shrugged. “Bye Regina.”

As they traipsed out of the hospital, Emma definitely noticed that the other woman didn’t try and deny it, and a warm glow settled in her belly.

* * *

 

They headed to the diner, to feed Henry the promised infamous cheeseburger.

“Hey Ruby,” She asked the waitress as they were finishing up, “Any idea how to get rid of a ghost?”

“Rough weekend eh Swan?”

“Something like that.”

“I bet Granny does,” She smirked, clearing their plates.

Sure enough a few moments later, Granny arrived with a glass of… something. “Fireball whiskey, a little cream, tomato juice, and…”

“Is that an egg?” Emma asked.

“Sure thing, this will do the trick, clear the cobwebs from your head.”

It wasn’t exactly what she had in mind, but with the expectant audience before her she plugged her nose, tilted her head back and downed the drink.

“How’s that?” Granny ask proudly.

“Much better thanks,” Emma grimaced.

Henry and Regina sat side by side hands over their mouths, their shoulders shaking as they tried to keep from laughing.

“Oh go ahead and laugh, see if I care.” Emma shuddered.

And so they did.

* * *

 

They tried the library next, piling the entire supernatural section on one of the long wooden tables down the centre of room.  They sat huddled over the books all afternoon.

“Hey Regina” Henry asked, glancing up from a page, “Do you see a light anywhere? Because if you do, maybe you can you go to it.”

“I don’t Henry, I’m sorry.”

 “Ok here’s a chant we can do, when’s the next full moon?” Emma suggested next.

“It just passed,” Regina sighed, “We have nearly a month to wait.”

“Shit.”

She flipped through a few more books, “Uh so there’s a ghostbuster in Portland, he does birthdays for only seventy-nine, ninety-nine.” Emma groaned, “Somehow I feel like that going to be no help at all.”

“Sherriff Swan, Henry,” A petite brunette with an Aussie accent stepped out from behind the shelves, “I’m afraid I’m closing for the day.”

Emma glanced at her phone, “Shit it’s already five, and I’ve got to be at work at seven. Is it ok if we take a couple of these, we don’t have a card or anything but uh…”

“It’s all right, I trust you. You are the Sherriff after all. We’ll get you set up when you bring them back.”

“Thank you, thank you so much.”

She checked out the stack of books, stamping them, and tucked the printout in the drawer. “Ghosts, sprits, spells,” She raised her eyebrows. “This is an interesting collection. You know Henry, my husband knows a thing or two about ghosts if you’d like to chat with him.”

“Uhmmm….”

Emma quickly nudged him, “He’d love that wouldn’t you Henry. Thanks Belle.”

“He’s something of a collector of artifacts,” She continued proudly, addressing the boy, “Some may even hold magical properties.”

“Cool!”

“You should go by his shop when you have the chance, I know he’ll be happy to show you around.”

“Thank you, thank you.” Emma called over her shoulder, ushering them out the door.

“Henry I’m afraid it’s a baked beans and hot dogs kind of night.”

“It’s ok ma, go, go.”

She rushed around the kitchen, hurriedly tucking in her shirt and trying to braid her hair, in an effort to tame her curls. “Ok dinners there, you can watch a movie if you want. My cell and the station’s numbers are on the fridge, and Ruby’s number if you can’t reach me. Regina will be here to keep an eye on you.”

“Ma I’ll be fine, I’m old enough to be by myself.”  

“I know kid, I know.” She kissed his hair, “Don’t stay up too late reading, we’ll go see Mr. Gold tomorrow.”

* * *

 

“Hello Mr. Gold, your lovely wife told us to come check out your shop.”

“Ah yes, did you have anything in mind?”

“Well we were wondering if you could tell us what you know about ghosts.” Henry piped up.  

“I see, and would it have anything to do with the spirit that’s accompanying you today?”

“You can see her?” Emma gaped at the man.

“No dearie but I can sense her, she’d a hostile little bugger if you ask me.”

Regina clenched her fists at her sides, the vein in her forehead popping. “He’s a crook.”

“I’ve angered her.” He stepped back in surprise.

“You really can sense her?”

He nodded, his gaze trained on the space beside Emma, “She’s the most solid spirit I’ve ever felt.”

“She’s alive.” Emma blurted.

“I beg your pardon.”

“It’s Regina Mills, she’s in the hospital in a coma.”

“Ah yes of course, and her spirit is here? With you?”

Emma nodded.

“And you can see her, only you.”

She nodded again, “And Henry.”

“Interesting, interesting.”  He giggled, “Destiny certainly has a funny way of presenting itself.”

“So can you help her?” Henry piped up.

He shook his head, “No dearies, there’s nothing that can be done.”

“This was our last chance. Please,” Emma begged, “You have to help us.”

“Please,” Her son repeated.

Regina shivered beside them, desperation taking hold.  

“I can take a look into a few things, but this is far beyond the scope of my abilities. She’s alive for all intents and purpose.”

“But….”

Regina shook her head, “Let’s just go, he’s just playing with us. He doesn’t really know anything.”

“But…”

“Let’s go get Henry some famous Storybrooke ice cream.” She suggested, her voice rising with false cheer, though her eyes darkened by the storm of despair inside her head.

* * *

 

Their search for answers was fruitless. They'd tried just about every possibility in the books, then on the internet and eventually desperately fell for Mr. Gold’s interesting and pricey suggestions.

Their search soon fell to the wayside as life fell into an easy rhythm. One full of laughter and love.

And so the days passed varying degrees of normalcy, Henry started school and Emma settled into regular hours at the station.

Every morning Regina would walk them to school, to work, before returning home to read the books that Emma would leave open or the TV Emma has left on.

Sometimes she would visit herself in the hospital.

On those days Emma could sense the quiet about her. She’d put on their favourite jazz CD in the kitchen while she cleaned up after dinner and before long they’d be dancing to the soft saxophones and a smile would return to Regina’s lips.

It was easier to focus on the simple routine of their life together, rather than on the despair of belonging to another world, a world where she wasn’t alive or dead. And so she tied herself to the world where Emma would make dinner, her cooking improving under Regina’s careful eye, and where Regina would helped Henry with his homework, his math skills going through the roof.

Her presence in their lives was solid, was real, despite the nature of her existence.

Friday night was movie night and they took turns choosing the movies. Regina always picked old black and white movies that had Emma and Henry groaning and protesting, but would usually end up on the edge of their seats proclaiming it the best movie ever.

Regina had those movies memorized, and Emma would get just as much enjoyment watching Regina as she did watching the movie. She’d mouth the words, with a sparkle in her eyes.

They hiked the woods around Storybrooke, they’d been Regina’s favourite escape as a girl. She and her father would take their horses down the trails. Emma and Henry walked them now, and Regina told them the stories her father would tell her once upon a time, of sprites and brownies that lived in the woods.

Every night after tucking Henry in, they would curl up together on the couch, in bed, on the glider in the backyard and just talk. Talk and talk and oh they talked.

Sometimes could almost imagine they were touching.

Almost.

And when October arrived with crisp mornings and blue sky afternoons, Regina supervised day after day as they tended to her apple tree.  She showed them how to store the apples, how to protect the tree for the winter, and best of all came the delicious apple treats.

There were weeks of apple pie and applesauce, apple turnovers and apple muffins.  And under careful instruction from the brunette, Emma and Henry prepared her famous apple cider, smooth and rich.  

The house always smelling of cinnamon and apples.

Of home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This has been a struggle, but the last three chapters will be up in the next three days! Thanks for your messages, they’re an inspiration and a kick in the butt to finish this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Once Upon a Time  
> *** Trigger warning for a little homophobia in this chapter. Sorry.

And then the world came crumbling down upon them.

Regina’s mother arrived in town, in a fleet of shiny black cars, and bodyguards in suits, and assistants with stilettos and phones permanently attached to their ears.

They drove through the streets like ants, infiltrating the city hall, the Sherriff station, the school, commanding attention and spitting that smooth political nonsense at the unsuspecting citizens.

After going head to head with Cora Mills over her annual budget, Emma had never been more grateful to get home that night. She wanted a beer and she wanted her family, not necessarily in that order.  

She usually came home to the sight of Henry and Regina at the kitchen counter, their heads bent over his homework. But the kitchen was empty and the house oddly silent.

She hung up her gun and locked the safe before she jogged upstairs. “Hey kid, where’s Regina?”

“I dunno, she wasn’t here when I got home.”

“Did you do your homework?”

“I started it but its only fun with Regina.”

Emma chuckled, “Are you sure you’re my son, and not Regina’s? Homework and fun is not something I’d put in the same sentence.”   She tapped her fingers on the doorframe, sighing, “I guess I’ll go get some dinner going, I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

“Ok Ma, love you,” He mumbled, his eyes already trained on the page of his book.

Dinner passed quietly and she puttered in the kitchen while Henry played a video game in the living room. She could hear the faint electronic beeps over the sound of the CD she had on. She hummed while she worked, stuffing the taco casserole into Tupperware and munching on the last few bites of salad.

She started when she closed the fridge and found Regina standing there, “Jesus it’s been a while since you’ve scared me like that. I missed you tonight, we both did.”

But then her blood went cold when she saw the look of terror on the other woman’s face, her skin grey and pale, her eyes dark and sunken, her whole body ridged like it would crack into a thousand pieces if you so much as touched her.

“Regina, what’s wrong?” She had to stuff her hands in her pockets to keep herself from trying to pull Regina into her arms, when they would only fall though her and upset them both.

“They’re going to kill me,” She said in a ragged whisper.

“What?” Emma took an involuntary step forward.

“My mother, she visited the hospital this evening and…” She lifted trembling fingers to her lips, “They’re going to take me off the respirator.”

“No. Regina, no.” She let out an anguished cry of frustration, of pain, collapsing on the floor, her back against the fridge.

Regina shrugged helplessly, “I’m just a waste of space, of money, of time. My mother will donate my organs to prove she’s not a monster and she’ll be touted as the hero politician for killing me.”

“I’m not going to let that happen.” Emma growled, banging her head against the refrigerator door, punctuating each syllable.

“Emma…it’s done, it’s going to happen tomorrow morning.”

“I can’t… I won’t…” And then the tears started, and the fight washed away, and she just cried with her head on her knees.

“Mom I heard…” Henry stopped in the doorway. “Woah what’s wrong guys.”

“She’s going to kill her,” Emma wept.

“What?”

“My mother,” Regina explained, “She’s in town to take me off the respirator.”

“But you’re alive! She can’t do that!” He started to cry, hesitating for a second beside Regina before he launched himself into his mother’s arms.

“She can.”

They were all crying then, and all desperate with need to cross the boundaries between worlds to hold and be held.

“Regina,” Emma lifted her gaze, looking over Henry’s shoulder. “I love you.”

“You can’t love me Emma, you can’t tell me that now.” She shook her head, her brown eyes pleading.

“But I do.”

“I do too,” Henry whispered.

“I love you both so much.” Regina sagged, dropping to the floor beside them, hugging her knees to her chest in a desperate attempt to comfort herself when the two people she needed most could not.  “But this is over now, we have to say goodbye.”

“Don’t say that,” Emma sobbed, gross hiccupping cries that made her chest heave.

“I’m not going to wake up.”

“Yes you will,” Henry protested, “You will wake up. I know it.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible, tomorrow…”

“Regina we need you, we’re a family.”

 “I’m just a ghost.”

Emma snapped, “You’re more than that and you know it.” She stood suddenly, peeling Henry from her arms and scrubbing at her face. “I have to go talk to her. Just- Just stay here with Henry please.”

“Emma don’t…My Mother…”

“I am not giving up on you.”

“Mom!”

“Em-!”

The front door slammed cutting them both off.

She drove haphazardly through the streets, throwing her car into the first parking spot she could find outside the emergency room doors.

She found Cora Mills at the nurses’ station, berating the young woman who cowered behind the desk, her steely voice cutting though the otherwise quiet hospital.

“Madam Senator.”

“Who are you?” She looked her up and down, taking in what Emma knew was a splotchy face and unflattering bloodshot eyes.  

“Emma Swan, town Sherriff, we met earlier today.”

She sniffed.

Emma took it as a sign to continue and so she began, trying to keep her voice strong and steady. Still, it wavered, with the tears that were just beneath the surface “Madam Senator, I’m here about your daughter. Please, you can’t kill her.”

“And just who do you think you are? Talking to me about my daughter.”

“Regina and I…we were friends.”

“She didn’t have any friends,” She scoffed.

“She had me, she has me. And you know what?  I-I love her, and she loves me.” She reached for her arm, pulling her around to meet her imploring gaze. “I can’t let you kill her. Please, she just needs a little more time.”

“Get your filthy dyke hands off of me.” She snapped, wrenching away, “You will not say that about my daughter. That’s foul. She would never do anything as disgusting as that, she knows I won’t allow it. I can’t believe they let people like you be Sherriff, I will be having a word with the board.”

“That’s beside the point.” Her cheeks were wet with tears.

She didn’t even know when she’d started crying.

“Is it?”

“Please just don’t take her off the respirator yet, she needs more time. This is your daughter, don’t you care? Don’t you want her to wake up?”

“She’s a drain on my time and resources.”

Emma took a staggering step back. There was no remorse in the other woman’s words, not a hint of emotion, not a sliver of care. “You’re the one who is sick lady, you’re disgusting. How can you call yourself a mother?”

“It’s time for you to leave Miss Swan,” She continued coolly.

“No.”

She gestured to the men in suits hulking behind her. “Do you need help understanding the English language?”

 “No, no. I’ll go, I’ll go.” She walked backwards to the elevator, “But lady, this isn’t over.”

* * *

 

Once home, she tucked Henry in, tears in a contrast stream down her face. He pulled her into a hug and didn’t let go for the longest time, his own tears soaking the front of her shirt.

She and Regina lay on top of the covers, their legs, their bodies, their hands pressed together, side by side, so that they could almost imagine the heat from each other’s body. Almost.

The moon bathed them in a silver light on their last night together.

She must have drifted off because she woke with the sun and jumped out of bed.

“Emma?”  Regina sat up, a look of surprise.

She turned at the door a grin on her face, “I know what to do Regina.”

She ran to Henry’s room, shaking him awake. “Kid get up, we have to go.”

“Ma?” He rubbed his eyes.

“We have to steal Regina body, give her more time.”

“Emma you can’t, you’ll go to jail.”  Regina protested from the doorway.

“I don’t care. Besides when you wake up you can tell them what happened.”

“If I wake up.”

Emma spun furiously, “When you wake up Regina. When.”

They pounded on the door of the diner until a sleepy Ruby answered and Emma barged in. “Ruby, I need your help.”

“Good morning to you too,” She mumbled, “You know I’ve got your back girl, but what’s so important that it has to be done at this hour.”

“I need to steal Regina’s body.”

“What?”

Emma continued, “Look these no time to explain properly but you just have to know that she’s alive.  Her ghost is with me and her mother is going to take her off the respirator and it’s going to kill her and I need to steal her body. I need to give her more time. She needs more time. She will wake up.”

“Emma, uh, you look terrible,” With a hand on her arm, she guided her to a table, “Why you don’t sit down and have some hot chocolate and we’ll talk about this.”  

She shrugged off the touch, “No. Ruby we need to do this now.”

“Emma, I can prove it,” Regina whispered.

“What?”

“Tell her that I can prove it.”

Emma raised her chin, “Regina says she can prove it.”

“How?” Ruby challenged.

“I know about you and Belle. How you kissed on her wedding day.”

“What really!” Emma addressed Ruby with a smirk, “She knows about you and Belle. You guys apparently kissed on her wedding day.”

“There was tongue,” Regina added.

“There was tongue,” Emma repeated.

“How do you know that? The only one who knows that is Belle.” Ruby went pale.

“And me.”

“And Regina,” Emma countered.

“It was after said wedding that you ended up on the steps of city hall at sunrise and you told me everything over a bottle of champagne.”

“You showed up at city hall the next morning and told Regina what happened over a bottle of champagne.”

“Shit. Yeah…I did. I did.” She said in awe, glancing around, “Regina is really here?”

“She is. Her ghost is.” Tears threatened, “Look Ruby, I’m in love with her, I’m so in love with her and I need more time, she needs more time.”

“You’re in love with her? I never would have expected to hear those words spoken about Regina Mills.”

“She’s different once you get to know her. She’s special,” Emma blushed.

“You really do love her?”

“I do. Now can we please go!”

They piled into the van Granny used for deliveries, careening through the city streets.

Once inside the hospital Ruby took charge, pulling them into a supply closet stacked with medical supplies. “I made out with a candy striper in one of these when I was sixteen, I figure we could get what we need in here.”

“Nice work Rubes!”

“Ok focus, what do we need,” Henry interrupted.

“Something to keep her breathing,” Ruby suggested helpfully.

“Ok one of these, a portable heart monitor….Shit, I should have done more research I have no idea.” They grabbed a few more things and rushed down the halls, empty this early in the morning.

One of the stiletto clad assistants, looking slightly rumpled, sat just outside Regina’s room.

“Henry we need a distraction.”

“What do I say?”

“Make something up, just get her away from there.”

“Hi, uhm I’m a volunteer from the elementary school, we come sometimes to read to Miss Mills.” He glanced nervously over his shoulder, “Would it be alright if I said goodbye?”

“Sure kid, just be quick about it. Let’s go.”

“No, no. Please can I be alone. I don’t want you to see me cry.” His lower lip trembled convincingly.

Her features softened in sympathy, “Ok kid I’m going to go get some coffee and when I come back, you’ve got to go.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

He gave them a thumbs up and they pushed the gurney around the corner and into Regina room.

They hooked up the machines best they could, with suggestions from Regina and a Dr. Henry searching the internet on Emma’s phone.

“Ok. One two three.”

And they lifted Regina from the bed to the gurney, tucking the portable heart monitor beside her, its’ quiet beep the only sign that the limp woman on the gurney was alive.

“Henry, is the coast clear?”

“Yeah were good!” He called from the doorway.

They made it down the hall, and down the next, but then the elevator dinged and the doors slid open revealing a shocked Cora Mills and her bodyguards towering behind her.

“Is that…? What are you doing with my daughter?”

“Shit.”

“Run!” Henry exclaimed, and they pushed the gurney back down the hall, skidding around the corner.

But one of the bodyguards was quick to catch up, and in reaching for the side of the gurney he instead came away with the tubing that kept Regina breathing.

He stared bewilderedly at the blue tubing in his hand.

The heart monitor beat erratically.

“No!” Emma screamed. The world was spinning as the crowd of doctors and nurses and reporters grew around them. “Help her! Somebody help her!”

No one stepped forward. Not a single one.

Cora’s bodyguards pushed them all back.

“Regina,” She whispered, leaning over the gurney to kiss those full lips she’d dreamed of kissing for so long. “I love you Regina. I love you.”

Regina stood beside herself, her fingers pressed to her lips in wonder and delight. “Emma,” She called, her voice faint. Fading. “I felt that. Emma….”

And then Emma was breathing air into her lungs, and pumping on her chest in counts of five. “Someone please help her. Regina!”  

She grew paler and paler, more transparent than visible. Her final seconds whispering, “Emma, I love you too.”

The heart monitor beeped three more times before it flat lined.

She was gone.

Silence filled the hall.

“No, Regina, no! I love you Regina! I love you Regina…” Emma collapsed on her chest, sobbing.

The bodyguards pulled her off.  “We’ve called hospital security and the cops. They’ll be here soon.”

Beep. Beep.

Bip.Bip.Bip. The heart monitor jumped to life.

Regina coughed. Her brown eyes fluttering open. “Mother? What are you doing here? Where am I?”

Emma tore herself from the man’s grasp, reaching for her hand, “Oh my god Regina, you’re ok. Thank god.”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?” She asked, her brow furrowed, her gaze troubled. 

 “It’s me, it’s Emma.”

“And Henry,” He popped up beside her.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know you. Mother?” She questioned.

Cora Mills nodded to her men, “Miss Swan, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Regina you really don’t know me?” Her voice cracked.

Regina shook her head, “I’m sorry, I don’t.

A meaty hand closed over her arm and Emma shrugged him off, “Don’t worry I’m leaving.”

“Why doesn’t she remember us?” Henry asked trailing behind her.

And the elevator doors closed and she was gone.

Their whole life, just like that. Gone. It had never existed.


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Once Upon a Time

The two Swans were eating breakfast in tense silence the next day when the front door opened and what could only be a personal assistant of Senator Mills marched into the house, her heels clacking on the marble of the foyer.  A cleaning crew traipsed in behind her in crisp white uniforms, arms laden with buckets of supplies.

“Emma Swan,” She marched up to the counter, “You are required to vacate the premises.”

“What the fuck? This is our home.”

“Not anymore,” The woman calmly handed over a sheaf of papers.

“Ma, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know kid, I don’t know.” Emma glanced through the papers before crumpling them and throwing them to the ground. “This is bull-shit.”

“You will leave immediately. Your belongings will be packed this afternoon by our team of professionals, and sent to your new residence,” She explained coolly.

“This is insane,” Emma stood quickly, her stool skidding behind her and toppling to the ground. “You can’t throw us out. We have nowhere to go.”

“That’s not my problem. Now, I suggest you go grab a few things and leave, or we will have to take action.”

The cleaning crew entered the kitchen like little white moths, flitting about, leaving destruction in their wake.

They moved quickly though the room, opening drawers and emptying the contents of the fridge into industrial garbage bags.

The jars of apple butter they’d made a few days ago, just sitting in the counter waiting to be dressed in gingham and ribbon. Gone.

The secret tub of ice cream Emma snacked on while she and Regina cleaned the kitchen. Also gone.

The bottle of wine they’d “shared” just two nights ago. Dumped into the sink.

The leftover lasagna, Regina’s secret recipe, dropped unceremoniously into the bags.

Their entire existence thrown away in a matter of minutes.

The tears started again. Even when she didn’t think she could have any more left.

 “Ma, let’s just go.”  

“This isn’t right Henry,” She protested, her voice hoarse with emotion.

“I know ma, but what can we do.”

Their cereal bowls were swept from the counter in front of them and into the sink.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.”

She stuffed jeans and t-shirts into a duffel and swiped the paraphernalia from the counter in the bathroom into the bag. She zipped it, its rasp an eerie sense of finality.

“You ready kid?”

He nodded, glancing around his room one last time, before swinging his backpack onto his back and gathering a stack of comics into his arms.

“Here is my number,” The assistant said, guiding them to the front door, “Give me a call this afternoon and let me know where we can bring your things.”

“Right. Sure.”

The woman turned, effectively dismissing them.

There was nothing more to do but to leave, to drive past the swarm of cars that surrounded the mansion and through the streets of Storybrooke.

They drove aimlessly for a couple hours, up and down the city streets, until Henry said he had to pee and Emma’s stomach growled uncomfortably.  

They stopped at the diner, where Emma broke down crying on Ruby, and Henry sat hunched over his comic books not even reading, his own tears dripping onto the pages.

They moved into the Inn, where their boxes of belongings were soon delivered, crowding their small room.

There was one apartment for rent in Storybrooke. One. And so they moved into it a few days later.

Things slowly returned to normal.

At least a version of normal.

An every day.

Yes.

But the huge hole that Regina left could not be filled.

* * *

 

It was months later when Emma finally got all the boxes unpacked, she just hadn’t had the heart. 

Unpacking meant committing to the reality of their new life.

But at last it was done, and their apartment was beginning to look like home.

She hated admitting that, even to herself. It felt like she was cheating.

On the girlfriend she’d never actually had.

In that last box she found the keys, the ones to Regina’s apple cellar.

She should give them back.

She should.

Cut that final tie, and stop hoping and try to move forward.

Before she had the chance to think, she pulled on her leather jacket and ran through the streets until she stood in front of the white mansion that had once been her home, filled with laughter and love.

She should just put the keys in the mailbox. Just end it then.

She wouldn’t have to see Regina, her brown eyes empty of recognition, instead filled with distrust and confusion like the day at the hospital.

But her traitorous legs had her walking around the side of the house, into the backyard.

And there she was, her hair cut a few inches shorter than it had been for all those months, but the lines, the curves of her body… She was still her Regina. She stood with her hands on hips, gazing up at her beloved apple tree, the sweet pink blossoms just beginning to bloom.

“I knew I’d find you here.”

Regina startled. “Oh goodness, what…? Oh, you’re that woman from the hospital.”

“Yes.” She paused, hoping, searching for recognition in those brown eyes that swallowed her whole.

Nothing.

“What are you doing here?” Her eyes narrowed, the vein on her forehead throbbed.

“I came to return the key to the cellar. I just found it.”

“How convenient,” She snapped.

Emma held out her hand, “Look I’ll leave now, I just came to bring them to you.”

Regina stepped closer, palm up to receive the keys.

Their hands hovered mere millimetres apart, coming closer and closer like they had all those nights when they dreamed of finally closing the distance between worlds, when they could only imagine how it would feel.

Only this time they touched.

Regina pulled her hand back like she’d been shocked, her eyes clouded with confusion as her fingers closed over the keys.

It was done.

“Goodbye Regina,” She turned quickly. Emma felt her walls come crumbling down all over again, the pain of their memories, their life destroyed, tearing through her.

“Emma wait.”

She kept walking, scrubbing the tears from her eyes.

“Em-ma.” Regina called again.

The weight of those two syllables had her turning.

Regina closed the distance between them, cradling Emma’s face in her hands, her fingers tangling in her curls, tugging her closer until their lips met soft and sweet.

“Emma, I remember,” She whispered against her lips. “We touched and I- “

“You do?”

She answered with a kiss, a kiss that deepened, a kiss that made up for all those months of longing and all those months of being strangers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N. Thanks so much for reading! You guys are amazing! Watch the movie if you haven’t its super cute!


End file.
